#325 Shop One in Five (Small Businesses) This Holiday Season
11:08PM Nov 15, 2021
Speakers:
Tracy Matthews
Minna Khounlo-Sithep
Jacqueline Snyder
Keywords:
small businesses
people
shop
directory
pledge
listed
business
website
online
consumer
movement
purchases
product
seo
support
create
discover
instagram
traffic
shopping
Okay. All right, I am so excited to be here with my friends Jacq and Minna of the product boss podcast and shop one in five. Welcome, ladies.
Hi, Tracy.Thanks for having us.
I am so excited to talk to you today because I've had you on the podcast before. And, you know, we are great friends and supporters of each other in everything that we do. And I'm mostly excited about this. Because a while back, you started a movement that we're going to be talking about today, called shop, one in five. And I'm so excited for you guys for starting this move, but also more than anything for the people who are involved in this movement, because it's really important. So before I kind of spill the beans myself, why don't you guys tell me a little bit more about what shot one and five is all about?
Yeah, um, so you know, in 2020, we realized that the small business was small businesses everywhere were struggling, and they needed support. And small businesses were ultimately the hero as well. They're the backbone of our economy. They do hiring especially if we think back to 2020 people were losing jobs, they were forced to be working at home. But we knew small businesses could pivot quickly. And they could keep working right. And we needed to support the small businesses locally, and online. So Mina, and I were thinking through it, and we were like, how do we push more people into shopping from small businesses. Now, there's Small Business Saturday every year, and that's created by American Express. And thank you for doing that. And shop small is created by American Express. But the idea there was that, you know, the day after you shopped big box for Black Friday, you went to your local shop, and you shopped small on a Saturday, but in the world that we're all in everything went digital and online. And so we really wanted to create this movement to get people to shop one in five of their purchases from a small business, online or offline. So it's a way to easily integrate thinking and changing your buying behaviors that you're thinking, okay, out of every five purchases I make can one of those be from a small business, whether you're driving your local town, and you decide to shop at the local toy store, and then you go to Target and you go to Starbucks, you do all the big box things. Or if you're online, a lot of times people didn't know where to find small businesses online, we don't type in small business jewelry company, right? Like that's not something that people Google. And so we really wanted to create this movement, because we know it'll impact our economies, it impacts the families that have created these small businesses, creates job opportunities, financial stability, quick helps the creative industry and economic strength. So that's really the beginning of shop one and five.
Well, I love this. So love this. So love it, why I think it will obvious for obvious reasons. This is so powerful. But more than anything, a couple of years ago, I started talking about how sad it was to be walking down Bleecker Street in New York City to see that 50% of the shops were closed. A lot of them were the independent boutiques and specialty stores that I used to sell to when I was an emerging artists. And it's it's devastating that it's so hard to find small businesses to shop from and I felt like last year, you know, the only people who really, I mean a lot of brands that went online, like crushed it. I mean, I can list like hundreds from our community who were like having the best year ever with online sales. But also, you know, we were speaking in the pre interview, a lot of times these small businesses, especially, especially product based businesses, and handmade businesses that have really focused on getting traffic from other sources like Etsy, or their traffic from being in person suffered, and it's hard to get traffic to your website. So this is brilliant. Like, let's talk a little bit more about that.
Yeah, I think the overall I, the overall mission for us is simply to connect the consumer with the small business, right? We really that's where the impact starts. And the way that we've done it is we're going to do it together. You know, we're joining forces, we're locking arms, we can move mountains, as long as it's together. And for every small business, whether it's local, whether it's online, the biggest pain point is how are people going to find me? How are people going to find me? How would they even know I exist? We like to compare it to your star in the universe? How are people going to find you, right? And so that really is us bringing all the small business, small businesses together and creating a lifestyle around it. Because what we really saw at the end of 2020 was the consumer, though they're very educated, they have a computer in their pocket called the iPhone, or their droids or whatever. They can find pretty much anything on Google. But they were having a hard time finding small businesses. And small businesses really were the ones that, you know, they need to be found. Consumers were wanting to be more thoughtful with their dollar, but how can we connect the two? And how can we do it in a way that aligns for both parties. So it was the consumer who's more thoughtful with their dollar wants to support Small businesses. And there's a directory that has all those small businesses, and is able when you go when you're listed on there, and anybody can get listed at any time, you tag values. So
sorry to interrupt really fast. So we didn't talk about the director yet. So we should probably tell them about the director.
Yeah, so that was the other arm of it was we created this directory that gave people a place to shop from small businesses, once they took the pledge and kind of worked out in that sort of way. But they needed a place to live in that movement. And, and purchasing power is just a mate and amazing thing that we all have, that we can really think about, Okay, where is my dollar going? And where can I find the small businesses?
So that was sort of in response I was during the pandemic, we decided to live with my in laws, and my mother in law, bless her heart. But I was like, you know, shop one in five pledge like, well, the stores are closed, or you know, I can't go shopping, where do I find a small business and I was like, if she feels this way, other people feel this way. And that's why we also when we came out with a shop on invited pledge, we came out with a small business shopping directory, so they're linked. So when people come and they take the pledge to shop one in five of their purchases from a small businesses online or offline, they also find the Small Business shopping directory, which Mina was going to get into, but it's a bunch of categories. And it's a visual directory, it's not a marketplace. So we don't take any percentage of sales. Rather, it's a place that consumers can come and discover small businesses. And then they can choose to learn more about the business owner about the brand they could shop about. They could discover them value based, such as veteran owned woman owned minority owned, giveback, eco friendly, sustainable, and then they could also then click off of the directory and just shop directly from these small businesses website. So any of you know any of you out there that have a small business, this is a way that then people can visually find you learn more about you, and then choose whether they want to go shop from your business online.
So I want to just like really drive this point home? Because I think it's important, like, what's the difference between a platform like Etsy, and shop one and five, because I still think people might not be clear on that. Yeah,
a platform like Etsy is a marketplace just like Amazon, just like a lot of marketplaces, you list your items, somebody makes a transaction there. And usually that platform gets a cut, right, just like Etsy gets 5%, because they're bringing the eyes, they're bringing the traffic, the difference of ours, if you can imagine just a visual directory, that's like a phonebook. But we did that online. And we really brought the beauty of being a small business. So not only are they discovering small businesses in like an old school directory, but we just upped level that. So not only can they shop through categories, but it's a discovery tool, it's a directory, it's not a marketplace, we don't take a cut, you do pay to be part of it. But that's for the upkeep, we send eyes through advertising dollars, Facebook ads, PR team, you know, and through everybody sharing it, and then we're not a marketplace, because the transactions don't happen there. So everybody, the person, the general consumer comes to the small business shopping directory, and they get to read about these stories, they get to read about, you know, this person making candles and why they're making it or why they came up with that business. And it's really a discovery of the small business owner, and, and why they started a business and then you you know where your dollar goes. And you get to be in support of that, that entire mission.
So I love that so much. And I think it's so powerful, because like, We've mentioned this already, but this is really a movement to support people in like our industry and to, I don't know, there's been a lot of talk about, you know, it's like you're saying, it's really hard sometimes to find small businesses online, if you don't have a lot of money for ads, which most businesses don't, they probably shouldn't be spending money on ads until they're doing at least a couple $100,000 a year, in my opinion, because you lose a lot of money on ads until you can figure out how to make them work, especially for products, you have to be able to wait a minute before you're seeing that, that return on your ad investment. So that's really powerful. But also traffic to your website can be hard, you know, like it takes time to build SEO and all of the traffic driving and this is just another tool. So you know, we talked about backlinks to a website or were ways to get traffic to website. This is a great opportunity when you agree.
Oh, it's like you're speaking our love language or like it's serious. It's a sexy language SEO. Let me tell you. But um, yes. So yeah, we're very much the product last about organic marketing. Because like exactly what you said it is a big learning curve to get into advertising paid ads. It's a high cost and you have to make sure that conversion happens in the product you sell. I will tell you from my business that I've had since 2007, I have another business it's a consulting business fashion for the fashion industry. Um, I was the very first things I did back in the day, I feel like the internet was invented back in 2007. It wasn't but people didn't really have websites, they weren't really doing commerce yet ecommerce, as much is I was listed in a directory of fashion businesses, it was like pattern makers that sewers and I was a consultant. And I paid for this. And every year from there, I'm been in business for like 1415 years now, I still I have no, I do not have to pay any dollars for ads ever. Because my SEO is so good. And when I first checked for the first five years of my business is because it was listed in this directory, and the SEO from them driving traffic to this directory. And then it just kept ranking and bumping up my own website. So eventually, I was like number one and a bunch of whole a bunch of Google searches. And so if any of you don't understand SEO, the more your business or your website is linked to other websites, Google likes it. So Google likes that there's referring sites to your website, and then you're referring to other websites. So for example, if you were listed on the shop on a five directory, we're linking to you. And let's say on your website, your like, as featured in the shop one, if I've directory and you linked back to us, it would help you with your SEO, which really helps you become more discoverable online and helps your Google rankings.
Yeah, it's all about relevancy. If people are looking for small businesses, and let's say they're a jewelry company, they're coming to the Small Business Directory. And let's say you're connected through that it lifts up your website, according to relevancy. Also, the other thing about this, and I want everybody to understand this is that when people want to support small businesses, they're in their mind thinking, let's say I'm like, oh, I want to find a gift. But they're not going to exclusively, I only want to make one purchase, it's only going to be a jewelry company. And that's all I want to ever do. They literally can go and shop with wallet in hand is what we like to call it, but you have to connect the dots, right? So that customer is like showing up in that directory. And they get to discover small businesses. But odds are, they're not just going to buy jewelry piece, they're going to buy cookies, they're going to buy a scarf, they're going to buy all these different things pieces, consumer buying, I mean, shopping begets shopping in my mind. So you're really just not only creating traffic for yourself and visibility, but you really are creating like the ideal customer that wants to find a product that's aligned with them wanting to shop from small businesses, and making it a different way for them to discover you all together. So it's, it's a really, it's niched, but you're catching them in the buying journey, when they want to spend on small businesses.
I love this. And, you know, one of my favorite things, or one of my favorite strategies that I work with our designers on is because like we primarily focus on jewelry industry people, and merging jewelry designers, even though we do have other people in our community like him who may or making other handmade products. But one of my favorite strategies for like holiday season, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day is to collaborate with gifts that would hang we call this in the in the wholesale world, like, which brands does your product does your line hang with. And so you could find even like certain using use the shop one and five directory almost in a sense to network with other small businesses. So you guys can collaborate and create your own, like live selling events, or virtual trunk shows. Or you can do things like you know, do a virtual gift guide where your guys are all promoting each other. And so there's so many ways that you could use a directory like this to build your relevance, as you're saying,
Yeah, so the benefit, since we're an educational company, as well. So we really want to lift up and use our platform to bring awareness to small businesses. So all of these small businesses out there. And if you want to get listed, you get listed, right. And there's all the outside benefits of being discovered and SEO and all that. But Mina and I are all about education and community. So when you do get listed, we have a private Facebook community for the listeners. And then also we have marketing workshops, because we know that it's you know, not only can we get you on the directory, but there's other things you can do from a point of view of marketing, the bringing that up because we have this community and we're all about collaboration at the product boss, and shop one in five, and we had our food, a bunch of food companies, there were five of them do this epic giveaway. So a bunch of food companies came together and they created this amazing collaborative real, where each of them had a spoon and they like grabbed the spoon and then the other one like it clipped over to the other person with the spoon, but they were all across the country. So that had come together through the directory. We've also seen people get together and do you know there's baby products. So there's kid and baby product giveaway. So I think exactly what you said it's thinking about it's a bunch of two brains together thinking about marketing and being able to meet this director and then drive traffic to tethers website. So it's just been amazing.
I love it so much. I know, I know you guys are doing some. Okay, there's a couple of other things I want to talk about. We briefly mentioned the pledge. Can you just like, tell us a little bit more about what the pledge is first, and then how can people sign the pledge and be a part of it?
I can read it. Yeah. Okay. So if you go to shop1in5.com, and you can click the button to take the pledge, and here's the pledge. Okay. So I pledge to support small businesses. By understanding the impact by spending has on other small businesses, I pledged to make one in five of my purchases to a small business. This includes online shops, small retailers, makers, manufacturers, restaurants, and small business owners everywhere I pledge because I believe Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, I pledge because my spending choices help business owners support their families, higher within their community and ultimately contribute to the overall economy. There is power in my purchases, and I pledge to shop one in five, because we are all in this together. So that's the pledge, and you can take it on the website, which is just putting in your email address, there's nothing like we're not gonna be like, hey, Tracy, did you make your purchases, like you're not getting that calling you on a Sunday?
Oh, it's not like a political petition.
It is definitely not. You're putting in your email. And it's, it's just partaking in a movement. And you do it by putting in your email. So we can email you occasionally, about the Small Business shopping directory to help you gift this holiday season. That's just an example. Or if we're running any promotions that will help small businesses become discovered. But other than that, it is literally just a pledge that's part of a movement to really get people to join forces, right. And to understand that, we really can make a difference, but it has to be together. And so we're bringing it all together.
And and we have three steps. When people take the pledge, one take the pledge to in order to fulfill your pledge shop, the Small Business shopping directory, right, and we have a really easy link to just end up over there and shop it. And the third thing that we ask all of you, so whether you take the pledge or not, is imagine if we all told three to four people to shop, the Small Business shopping directory and to take the pledge, right? That would be life changing to so many small businesses. So we're asking people to tell their friends, their family, their social network, it has nothing extra. And it means the world of difference. So we have ways that you could share the directory on your social you can share that you shop a small business, whether or not they're in the directory or not, right, I shop the small business look the best you can tag at shop one and five on Instagram, we have stickers, if you search shop, one in five there stickers on Instagram, and what it is just each of us, I'm sure you talk about this, but it's, it's you know, it's word of mouth marketing. And if it means something to you, and then you could pass it along to another person then shares that, it's just imagine the impact that we can all have together.
I love it. Okay, so that is signing the pledge and paying it forward to shop one in five, how if you want to be a business that to get listed, what's the process for that?
Same sort of thing, you go to shop1in5.com. But instead of taking the pledge, after that, you click on "Get Listed". And so that will walk you through how to get listed. And it really is about picking your category that you'll be in just like any other directory, you pick whatever category There's 15 to choose from. And then you submit your information, according to that cat a category, and then you'll have to get approved on the backend. So we approve according to an illegal things I suppose. And and then you get approved, usually 48 hours, somewhere around there, give or take maybe 72 hours, and then you after that you create your profile. And your profile includes a it's very extensive, like an extensive extensive in a good way, you get a full carousel of photos, you also get to tell your story, you can include video, if you want, you can really make your listing stand out. And you can go to the directory and just see the ones that have beautiful photos that have videos attached that have a founder story or a you know about about themselves sort of story. And those are the ones that tend to get the clicks over, you know, then it's like read more about this small business or shop from this business. And the click on the shop from the business can be to your website, or it can be to your Etsy store. It could be Amazon store, it could be your Instagram, wherever you want to send somebody off of shop off of shop one and five.com to get them to buy from you or get to know you further.
And it's global. So we have people in country, all countries. So if you're the first you may be the first person so if you search are there other people in Denmark, you know, on here, if you don't see it, it's because we haven't had people sign up yet. The majority of our consumers are going to be US or Canadian based. So it's great if you can do that. When we talk about SEO, there's so much traffic like within the first 30 days we had 50,000 pageviews to this site. So just about Imagine like that traffic to the site and how that will help you to on the back end. So it's basically less than 82 cents a day for all of this, right? Like, there's the education. There's the SEO, it's getting listed. It's contributing to this movement. And we do have a founders rate right now. And we do have, if you want more than one category, we've got discounts. It's 50%, off your second, third, fourth category. So for example, let's say you sell all of our jewelry people out there, you might want to be listed under gifts, and under jewelry, and you could be under you know, women's accessories, for example. Or maybe there's a subscription box and you could be under subscription boxes. So there are definitely people who took on more categories, because they want to be discovered in more places.
So what are you guys doing to get traffic to the shop one in five website to get embryo?
Before before we go into that Jacqueline done and give the code of the multiple things that I want to save if you Oh, it's launched? Okay. Yeah. So I just wanted to give that because I was like, Okay, that was a cliffhanger right there.
Why don't we say
it's launch? Yeah. So we are putting a lot of efforts into this. Because it we really believe in the heart of helping the heroes small business. And so we have a marketing budget, where we're doing Facebook ads, and Instagram ads, we also have a PR team, we have our email list. Plus, we have a podcast that has millions of downloads, and we have tons of emails. So I want to say all that. Not that I want to minimize it. But I will tell you, that's just the effort of myself and Jacqueline. Right, that's two people that are in this mission that are in this movement, but it will require more than just the two of us, it will just require more than just our budget, it's going to need to be everybody's gonna have to kind of tell three of three people like if I could tell three of my sisters, I happen to have three sisters. So that's just an example. So that is really what's going to create the movement. That's what you know, and the mission. And we are so excited about it. We really want to help. I don't know, throw gasoline on the fire, I guess is what we're considering it. Like, you know, we're pushing the snowball of eyes on the directory. But really, it's about the power of us doing it all together, sharing it all together, promoting it all together. Word of mouth, like what Jacqueline said, even telling tell your mom tell your grandma tell your you know, your uncle. And then you know, because there are people out there that want to shop small, but they only have it clicked in their their minds that it's going to Main Street USA, but it isn't. It's also going online as well. And they we can potentially, you know, help support a ton of people.
Yeah, for sure. Which is so exciting. Okay, so let's talk about the biggest Small Biz holiday collaboration ever. What's that?
How many words is that? So we decided. So we have our paid marketing efforts, which we talked about a bit earlier, right, where you can do paid marketing, or we're doing ads, we're paying for a PR team and all the things and doing podcasts like yours, JC. But then there's the organic growth. And so what we decided to do this holiday season was to really bring awareness that we want people to gift small this holiday season. And so we created the biggest Small Biz holiday collab ever, which is basically we asked people that were listed in the directory, if they wanted to participate in this, and for the entire month of November, they were going to offer a discount with one code. So basically, all 200 businesses are using one code. So in order to get it, you're gonna have to sign up for this. And then you can link off of this to all of these small businesses based on what their sales are. So 20% off of everything, you know, 20% off of shirts 15% off of this. So what we want to do is we wanted to collaboratively come together to offer a discount for the month of November to allow consumers to shop and discover and then have them, you know, opt in. So we're building our email list. And so we've been open, we've had this, it's the third day of this, and we've doubled our email list, which is amazing. It means everyone that's in it is really doing the work together that they're also promoting. And they're promoting this collaboration, because it's driving sales for all of us. So if any of you're interested in it, it runs through November, it's shop1in5.com/deals. And then you also can get these deals pre-Black Friday, so that you can get your shopping done early.
Yeah. And and really, we're doing it right now which we will do more of these because it's seems to be very popular. It's super exciting. But the consumer right now the average consumer is looking for deals and discounts. So we're giving it to them together in a really fun way. The biggest Small Business holiday club ever. And so we're seeing that every everybody's having fun with it, and we're super excited about it.
Well, I love this so much. So is there anything else what the listeners Need to Know About except for signing up for the directory, getting on in this biggest holiday club ever, and signing the pledge to shop one in five? And to use the website? Yeah, I
mean, I think we covered it, I think you know whether or not you get listed whether or not you shop it, I think we're just our biggest ask for everyone is to get to know it and then share about it. So even think about it in your mind, if you're driving around your town, or you are shopping online, and you're like, you know, I'm starting a small business because even if I didn't give them the email address, I've decided I'm going to make one of my purchases from a small business, right, it's just an it's just the thought we all just have to kind of change our programming a bit. And that we're just more conscious of this, it could end up being 234 Out of five that we eventually started to shop. But right now we're asking one in five, and then share it, I pledge to support small businesses, he can tag at CHOP one in five so that people can come on board to the movement, you can talk about how small businesses either you're a small business or maybe your parents or your grandparents had a small business and things you've learned. And I think no matter what, since you do have small businesses that listen to this podcast, well, we've been telling our community is like sharing your small business story and making it matter to the customer. Because if we can connect that for them, then it's a price objection. But they're like, but it's a small business, and I'm supporting them, they're more willing to get on board, if they're like this is impacting my community, they're more willing to get on board, like our dollars, our purchasing power is what's going to keep the businesses we love in business. And so we just want to share that holistically with everyone.
Yeah, I was gonna say a very similar thing. I think everybody that's listening right now, I think the biggest takeaway is that you all are a big deal, you're a big deal more than ever. And not only is it that you get to function, and be a business and do what you want to do. But what you do actually makes it impact. So small businesses account for 40% of job creation, it also accounts for innovation, you'll see at the end of any sort of, you know, let's say recession, or something catastrophic that happens within an economy. Innovation comes from small business, we saw this happen with Uber, I mean, Uber, one started as a small business that came from, you know, the 2008 recession, right. So it, not only do you get to live your life, create jewelry, do what you want to do be a part of a movement, you actually are really big deal. It actually matters. Small businesses also they're, they contribute much more to their local economy, which, you know, goes into their national economy, which goes into the global economy. So when you're, even when it comes, that dollar comes to your family, it goes towards you know, a local boutique, or it goes towards someone online, who then re contributes it, it's just a bigger impact. And so that's really exciting. So I would say the thing that I want you all to think about is to really shout from the rooftops that you are a small business, and to take pride in that because you are a big deal, and to show your face if you need to, but if not that, then you can certainly use your voice, right? Because right now people want to support you, they want you know, this is an also an opportunity. We didn't talk about this very much. But in 2021, we're going to see shortages happen with with big box stores. So who can step in? Well, the hero of course, the small business. So that's you, all of you that are listening that you can really think you know, get in front of your customers, tell them, serve them, tell them that you're ready to ship out your jewelry pieces, your candles, whatever it ends up being, and that you're there to help them get small and to live in this big movement of you know, you getting getting to be a part of being the Small Business hero but doing it together with the community of other people.
Such a great message. There's so many great things in there because like I just want to reiterate this like you all matter who are listening here and you're making a big impact in the world. And you have to remember that even when things get tough and people like Jack Amin and I are here to continue to support you and keep you going when you feel frustrated or whatever because at the end of the day, like what you're doing is really important and you need to keep keep getting your products and your art out there because it's people want to buy from you. Right Thank you Tracy.
Yeah, I mean at least one person everybody. I'm, I'm being totally serious. Like some people they think that they need to appeal to the masses. But there's a customer out there for each one of you. Right so what you do does matter. It's not like am I making a bunch of purchases or getting a bunch of people? It's am I reaching the right person?
So true. So let's wrap this episode up. Tell everyone once again. Where are they can find shop one and five on Instagram on the internet, all the things?
Yeah. So if you had to shop one in five, you could write it out but it's shop1in5.com. Either one will work, you can go ahead and shop the directory right there. You can also click the get listed button and you get listed with a special founding members price right now. And it is the holiday season. It's not too late to end up on there when people like me said to have their wallets out. And please follow us over on Instagram @shop1in5. We do not have access to reels yet. So it has been very hard to grow that Instagram without the only way that Instagram is telling you it's organic to grow. So please come follow us. And then you know we're always here to support you as well at the product boss. So we're at the product boss on Instagram and wherever you listen to podcasts, you've listened to the product boss podcast.
